Monday, May 7, 2012

(She rolled over at one week. Also, when left on her tummy she will scoot herself forward until she's off the blanket. Bummer.)

My mom got into town when Jade was 6 days old and stayed for two weeks. It was wonderful having her here - especially during the move - and Lola misses her terribly.

Lola finally became interested in her little sister about a week after she was born. She was especially fascinated by Jade's toes (below) and her belly button. Lola kept looking at it and saying "ouch" as Jade's umbilical cord had yet to fall off.

It wasn't long before Lola had to introduce Jade to her Yo Gabba crew.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

So, since it's already been ONE WHOLE MONTH since Lady J made her grand entrance I figured I'd better jot down some details of her birth day before I forget altogether. So, without further adieu, lets roll back the clock to April 3, her actual due date...

7:30am - after feeding Lola and making sure Kenny was good to go, I hit the gym (less concerned about fitness than on getting labor started). This being the morning of her due date, I was officially OVER being pregnant.

9:00am - arrived at my OB's office for what I hope will be my last appointment.

9:45, after an unusually LONG wait I finally got in to see the doc - well, the sub-doc as my regular OB was on vacation. Of course.

This doc does the routine check up and decides to strip my membranes - but not before giving me way too much warning that his fingers were WAY BIGGER than those of my regular (female) doctor. Ummm..awkward? A bit.

He announces that he "stretched me from a '1' to a '3' and proceeds to measure my fluids. Fluids seem low so I'm sent over to the hospital to be monitored. I give Kenny the heads up and beg him to take Lola to an Easter egg hunt I had planned on attending.

10:45-11:30 - I hang out in triage where the nurses discover that my fluids are actually high. We schedule me to be induced the following week. I high tail it over to the Easter egg hunt to meet my little family.

1:30pm - I'm at home, laundry is going, Lola is napping, and Kenny's finally at his office. I'm talking to my mom and tell her that during the course of our short conversation my back pain has grown noticeably worse and that I should lie down.

Lying down is really uncomfortable.

2:00 I decide to hop in the shower, which turns into a bath, which gets interrupted by Lola who is up way too soon from her nap. Dang it. Back pain is still strong.

2:40pm - I notice while fetching Lola some juice, that I have to stop twice to breath through the back pain during a VERY short walk from my bedroom to the fridge. At this point I FINALLY realize my back pain is contractions and that they're coming quick. I hurry and install the first 'contraction counter' app on my phone. 20 minutes later, the summary tells me contractions are averaging 2.5-3 minutes apart and are lasting about 50 seconds each.

3:00pm - I text Kenny: "please come home."

3:30pm - Kenny rushes in. "Ana's on her way to get Lola, where are the bags?, do we need anything else?, how are you feeling? I got the laundry, how fast are the contractions coming? what can i do? have you eaten anything?" He asks with in one sentence. (I'm writhing around on my bed at this point.

Ana comes and takes Lola, we make it to the hospital at 4:30pm where I learn I'm dilated to a 6/7 and almost fully effaced.

The rest is a blur...the pain sort of overshadowed the details.

I'm rushed through triage and prepped for Labor. Lots of needles. I'm a weeping ball of mess writhing every which way on the bed. I remember being so grateful for the handlebars that I couldn't seem to grip hard enough. Amelia comes and I can't even greet her. I hear a nurse mutter to another "she's in transition."

I finally get the epidural while enduring four contractions. A nurse tells me to hold still and to stop pushing. I'm checked again and hear this: "she's ready NOW. But her water hasn't broken; that's her saving grace." Apparently because my water was still intact, I was permitted to sit through another contraction to let the epidural set in a little before I started pushing.

5:15ishpm - pushing starts. I decide I'd rather die.

5:30pm - Kenny is told to reach over me and deliver his daughter (her head was already out).

My recovery was similar to Lola's, although there was a lot of bleeding initially which alarmed the nurses. I endured a painful little procedure to get the clots out, was hooked up with a catheter (yay) and put on a morphine drip (yay!). And I've been on an iron supplement all month as a result.

Jade...the girl of the hour. Born on her due date within one hour of us arriving at the hospital. The last month seems to have flown by just as quickly. Jade has proven to be more work than Lola was. She cries a lot more and needs help to fall asleep. And she doesn't sleep in long stretches. Nursing was a challenge and just last night I self-diagnosed myself (and her) with thrush. That's the only way I can explain the pain nursing continues to cause me. She rolled over at one week and continues to do so every time we place her on her tummy. She also scoots herself forward during tummy time and will often make it all the way off whatever blanket I've laid her on. I don't love that she's already sort of mobile. But, the moments when she's not work, she's pretty sweet. So, we'll keep her anyway. She's curious and attentive and always stretches back to see who is holding her. Her favorite is her Dad, of course. I seem destined to birth Daddy's Girls, and that's okay. He deserves their adoration. And it's a mutual adoration. Like with Lola, this relationship between her and her daddy is my favorite thing to observe. I have the added joy this time around of getting to watch Jade and Lola get to know one-another. It's sweet... Lola is attentive and interested and (mostly) gentile. Or as gentile as I can expect her to be. She's taken a special liking to lying on top of Jade, which is a bit of a problem, but so long as I'm around to regulate the affection (and make sure Jade's surviving it), I let Lola go for it. I'm predicting one day Jade will be the taller/bigger of the two and she'll dish it out to Lola. So the score will be settled one day. :)

I have lots of photos...just never the time to post them. Maybe tomorrow. And now, I'm off to feed this baby and hopefully get some sleep.